NEWS TRAVEL WEEKLY BUSINESS CONTINUED FROM THE BACK


airlines running holiday businesses have.” He added: “We are not going


to be a niche player, we need to offer a whole range of product. It’s about understanding what we stand for: value, frequency, network, better technology. “Our ability to deliver that


to the consumer, not burdened down by legacy technology and passing those cost savings onto the customers, gives us a really valuable proposition. “Currently we have 20


million customers who buy a leisure flit and o elseere for accommodation – that will be the primary target for us. “We are going to create a consumer proposition that will be able to compete and be a serious player in the market.” Lundgren added: “We have not had a single conversation about who we are going to take customers from. It’s about how we can offer value for customers and provide what they want. “We already have them on


our aircraft. This is providing a product and service to our existing customer base.” Wilson said easyJet would


have direct relationships with hoteliers, and that although the carrier says its direct-sell model has served it well, it had not closed off the option of selling though third parties. “People in the industry have


been waiting for easyJet to get behind running a holidays business,” he said. “We are getting a lot of approaches from hotels, who seem to be as excited about this as we are. They see us as an opportunity to distribute their beds.” EasyJet Holidays will start


contracting this winter and is scheduled to be relaunched towards the end of 2019, with a “meaningful impact” expected to be made from summer 2020.


Travel Weekly Business Breakfast: EasyJet’s chief executive was an


Shelving IT project was right move, easyJet says


Writing off £65 million by scrapping an electronic retailing technology project was the right decision for the low-cost carrier, Johan Lundgren said.


Asked about a shelved IT project


easyJet had embarked on in 2015, intended to replace the carrier’s entire e-commerce platform, the former Tui Travel deputy chief executive said: “It was a tough decision, a big decision. We were going to produce a system more suited to e-tail. We looked at the timing, what we needed to do and the costs involved. “We also looked at whether it


took resources away from other parts of the business, and felt we could get quicker wins with those resources elsewhere.” Lundgren, who took over from Dame Carolyn McCall as easyJet chief executive a year ago, said big  roects are alays difficult to deliver on time, and technology advances as projects are ongoing. “What you need today is not


what the world is going to look like next month,” he said. “Technology becomes more adaptable. In three years things will have moved on and changed,


EasyJet to bolster rewards schemes to improve offer


EasyJet will enhance its two loyalty programmes over the next two years so they offer more for the carrier’s repeat customers. Lundgren described its Flight


Club invitation-only scheme as “the most unknown loyalty


62travelweekly.co.uk20 December 2018


EASYJET: Has set out a straegy of innovation to analyse data points £65m


Amount written off when the e-tail project was dropped


and perhaps so too will your customers’ requirements, which must be the driver of your business. “This programme was taking longer and longer to complete, and yes, £65 million is a lot of money, but we developed many things we


programme in travel”. He said this was because the airline had not “done much with it”. “We need to do more to


promote it,” he added. “We need to work out what the value is.” The paid-for easyJet Plus scheme “could also do more”, said Lundgren. He said he wanted users to collect more points and get extra recognition from the airline. Lundgren also said easyJet is monitoring changes made


have taken advantage of, so it’s not like it hasn’t all worked out. “There are different types of


technology now that are easier, cheaper and more transparent.” EasyJet has set out a strategy


of innovation with data. It has 50 projects under way involving 28 data scientists, with a target of having 50 in place to analyse billions of data points. Lundgren said: “It’s about


oerational efficiency, doin tins smarter, and looking at what will happen in the future. We can do that today because the data is so freely available.”


BEING HEARD: The airline wants to reward its repeat customers


by Ryanair over carry-on bag policies, but had no plans to alter its rules.


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